


Unbreak the Broken, Unsay These Reckless Words

by realityisiron



Series: Train Wreck [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Keith angst, Season 2 spoilers, original take on what happened after the season 2 finale, season 2 finale spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-02 19:46:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11516178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realityisiron/pseuds/realityisiron
Summary: His instincts were telling him to run. Don’t sit with ghosts, don’t drown in memories, don’t waste away in smiles and warmth and vicious will that you can’t get back.- - - - -Keith goes to the Black Lion after Shiro disappears.





	Unbreak the Broken, Unsay These Reckless Words

**Author's Note:**

> You could probably read this by itself but it'll make a bit more sense if you read part one first.
> 
> This style is a little experimental. I haven't written something like this (not counting the first part of this series) in a while.
> 
> Anyway welcome to the part 2 that wasn't supposed to exist but now does. Again, listening to "Train Wreck" on repeat results in... more angst. Enjoy.

There was a grave in the hangar; beautiful and powerful and overwhelming – but a grave nonetheless.

Keith’s bones were too large for his body and his muscles too small, stretching his skin thin and thick as he stood in the black lion’s mouth, cold, still – he was the first to come since that time.

His instincts were telling him to run. Don’t sit with ghosts, don’t drown in memories, don’t waste away in smiles and warmth and vicious will that you can’t get back.

 _“Stop talking like that. You’re gonna make it.”_ Was he?

No. No. Keith couldn’t think like that.

They would get Shiro back.

Until then, Shiro apparently wanted him to lead Voltron and – as much as Keith hated it, thought it was _stupid_ because why lead Voltron when Shiro could just try _not_ dying (Shiro used to _want_ to live) – Shiro hadn’t wanted for much these last few months. (Keith knew Shiro had changed with the years, couldn’t – wouldn’t – ask for him to go back to how he’d been before, but was it so wrong to ask that Shiro cherish his own life again? _Was that so bad of Keith to want?_ ) Shiro had been through enough, so… so if he wanted this of him, Keith would try. He wouldn’t lead, couldn’t do that, but Red would (hopefully) take Allura into her jaws if the universe needed Voltron.

And the black lion had already flown for him once.

 

For all that she was cold metal and hot energy and roaring magic, the black lion was hauntingly quiet as Keith stepped towards the chair. He couldn’t stop moving – even if he was walking on glass waiting to break beneath his feet – because if he waited a breath too long his memory would build Shiro anew, vivid and strong and impossibly real in that pilot’s seat where he had every right to be and no earthly way of being. At the moment Keith couldn’t handle facing his own terrifying imagination.

Then the floor slid out from under him.

For the first time Keith saw himself, a disorienting playback as he struggled in his mind, grasping for a Shiro that wasn’t there (a Shiro that always wanted to be there, but was too cowardly to promise it because god _dammit_ he was always flickering in and out – was he even _trying?_ ). It was the Blade. Keith was imagining a Shiro leaving him behind (or maybe just reliving the foreshadowing). He was on the floor reaching for an invisible man.

He was in Shiro’s eyes.

Black was sharing this with him.

_“Your friend desperately wants to see you again.”_

_No._ Why was she sharing _this_?

Through Black he could feel a panicked ache in the memory of Shiro’s chest, his mind already halfway across the room holding Keith even when Kolivan tried to hold him back.

She rumbled somewhere in the depths of his head. Shiro had desperately wanted to see him too.

 _Don’t you throw that in my face, Black. If you knew that then why the fuck_ -

Human ribs and bones could be so brittle, muscles so unstable. He cracked then crumbled all at once, curled inward over the seat, shoulders trembling as he tried to will Shiro back into his lion – back home where he belonged.

_Why would you take him from me?_

Us. He’d meant to say “us”.

But maybe he hadn’t.

For how many years did Keith have to scream at the universe to let him keep one important thing, one person when everyone (everything) else had been taken? Damn him, Keith was selfish.

_When is it going to be enough?_

And he filled the broken heartbeats after with cries that made the cockpit fade.

 

There was a presence, big and soft, pressing against his mind – saying something maybe, he couldn’t be sure. The Black Lion had tried to wait for him to move, but Keith had gone so frightfully still. She slipped between the rock and the hard place of his mind, started with a memory of a frantic pulse rapid and fading as it echoed in her body – Zarkon was somewhere nearby in a mockery of what Voltron was but she felt no pull to him. Then she continued on to Shiro – Shiro with his bayard and that feeling of victory and coming home shining on his face. The Black Lion went cold and still, bathing Keith in her resolution: she had to pull Shiro out, had to send him elsewhere before-

_You **what?**_

__She had sent Shiro __away.

Keith shoved her out of his mind.

“I can’t do this.”

 

She couldn’t either.

 

The lions flew through the black of space.

There was no black among them.

**Author's Note:**

> Will there be more to this little series that was only supposed to be a one-shot? The answer is yes. I would say "probably" but uh... I've already got the next one mostly written so the answer is just yes.
> 
> I think the next part will make this all a little more clear. Hopefully?
> 
> And if you liked this and want to say hi to me, read my random posts about the Voltron fanart and fanfic I'm drawing, or just enjoy good Voltron content with me, I've got a [tumblr](https://realityisiron.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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